The Estonian bank LHV is opening a branch in London. The UK Financial Conduct Authority has granted the bank approval and the financial institution will now register an entity at Companies House. A UK branch will allow the bank to join the sterling payments system and provide financial intermediaries with a real-time payments service in both euros and pounds. LHV’s role will be as a link between new generation fintech services and banking infrastructure.
“We are an influencer bank — we strive to contribute to the development of financial services,” said Erki Kilu, LHV Bank’s CEO Erki Kilu. “Over the last six years, we have seen rapid growth in the volume of payment services, and more growth can be predicted, considering the effect on the financial sector from the European Payment Services Directive (PSD2) which entered into force this year. In order to offer new solutions, financial intermediaries need banking services — that means us.”
LHV Bank is a member of the Euro Payments System and also participates in the Instant Payments System working group. The bank intends to open the necessary accounts with the Bank of England and join the sterling payments system as soon as possible. The organisation plans to start servicing financial intermediaries by the end of 2018.
“London has become one of the most important financial centres, where financial technology companies from both Europe and the rest of the world are represented,” Mr Kilu says. “We aready have a number of substantial and well-known international payment intermediaries as our clients, and there will be more in the future. We could also provide our payment services to banks, credit intermediaries and other companies.”